Under the pretence of wanting a lesson, the armed men insisted on flying in an old Alouette 11 helicopter.
Photograph: Geoffroy van der Hasselt/AFP/Getty Images

The helicopter pilot taken hostage and forced to help heavily armed men spring a notorious French criminal from prison has spoken publicly for the first time about his ordeal.

Stéphane Buy told how he was expecting to give a flying lesson to two men; instead, he was beaten, knocked briefly unconscious and ordered to take a group of masked men to break Rédoine Faïd out of jail.

The hunt continues for Faïd, 46, a serial criminal serving 25 years for his part in a failed robbery in 2010 in which a police officer died.

Buy, an experienced pilot with 3,000 flying hours, said he had been approached by two men, one aged around 50 and the second in his twenties, for lessons.

“It was the second or third time I’d seen them. They’d already done an initiation flight with me and it had gone very well. I thought it was a father who wanted to treat his son. It was a flying lesson like any other,” he told RTL radio.

The authorities are still searching for Rédoine Faïd, who was serving 25 years for his part in a failed robbery in 2010. Photograph: IBO/AP

Buy said the men arrived on time for their lesson at 9.30am French time on Sunday morning at the aerodrome at Lognes, east of Paris. But instead of boarding the helicopter Buy had prepared, an R44 Robinson with four places, the two men insisted on a lesson in an Alouette II, capable of transporting five people parked in the same hangar. Buy refused, saying the Allouette was on loan and not suitable for beginners. In any case it was too low on fuel, he told the men.

“It was at that moment everything changed and they began to threaten me. I said we couldn’t take off with so little fuel, and they said: ‘Then get fuel quickly.’”

His voice breaking, Buy added: “They led me to believe my family was in danger.”

Manhunt under way after murderer flees Paris jail by helicopter

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He said he was in “such a state” but managed to put fuel in the helicopter and was ordered to calmly let the control tower know they were taking off in a southeasterly direction.

“Then [the gunmen] told me to land in a field on the pretext of wanting to urinate.

“They made me get out of the helicopter and aimed their guns at me. I was hit a couple of times with the butts and was told they had decided to take a friend from Réau prison, and it was important for me to do my job well otherwise my family would be at risk and there was someone outside my home.

“I wasn’t resisting; I didn’t have any choice with two Colts held to my head.”

Buy said he was then ordered to take off again, but had no flight plan or any idea of which direction to go.

Quick guide

France's most daring prison escapes using helicopters

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There have been 15 prison escapes by helicopter in France in the past 37 years. Here are some of the most daring.

March 2003

Heavily armed gangsters used machineguns and anti-tank missiles to blast their way into the Fresnes high-security jail outside Paris and free a notorious gangster. The French authorities said they were being confronted with 'weapons of war' and had to rethink prison security.

Pascal Payet: 2001, 2003 and 2007

Payet used a helicopter three times for prison escapes. In 2001, he escaped jail by helicopter and two years later helped inmates from the same prison escape using the same method. In 2007, Payet made a second daring escape from Grasse prison in the south of France, with the help of four accomplices and a hijacked helicopter and hostage pilot. At the time Payet was being moved to a new prison every three months in an attempt to foil his escape plans.

1986

The wife of Michel Vaujour, facing a long sentence for attempted murder and armed robbery, took helicopter flying lessons in order to whisk him away from prison. Vaujour reportedly painted nectarines to look like grenades to force his way on to the prison roof.

1981

Gangsters posing as businessmen rented a helicopter, took the pilot, his wife and children hostage and forced him to pick up two prisoners from the high-security Fleury-Mérogis prison outside Paris.

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“Then they told me to land again. I didn’t know where I was. They ordered me to cut off the engine and put my head down so I couldn’t see the commandoes arriving. I could hear bags and people being loaded into the back but I had to guess what was happening from the noise behind the cockpit. I was still being held with a Colt against my head.”

Buy said his nightmare truly began after the Alouette II, a vintage model, refused to restart.

“At this point the men became really angry. Suddenly I was being hit harder and harder with the gun butts. They kept shouting ‘start it, start it’, but each time the red light came on and it wouldn’t start. There was nothing I could do.

“I suggested we get out and try to solve the problem from the electro-mechanical box on the outside. It was then I saw these men completely hooded in outfits like the Raid or GIGN [French rapid intervention forces] in the helicopter.”

Buy said the men, wielding Kalashnikov rifles and reportedly wearing police armbands, began to lose patience with him as he repeatedly tried to start the aircraft without success. “Maybe they thought I was faking a breakdown, but I felt completely helpless in front of that engine that I had tried to restart five, six times,” he said.

“They became more and more nasty. I took a blow to the head and I fell to the ground unconscious for several moments. They picked me up … I tried another connection … finally the engine started and we took off in a hurry.”

The gunmen ordered Buy to fly low over fields “clearly to avoid radar” while they looked for the prison, finally spotting its red walls.

“I asked them: ‘What do I do now?’ They made me pass directly over the prison. I was too busy concentrating on what was a tricky manoeuvre to be worried for my safety. I had to follow their orders.

“I landed in a triangular courtyard on a piece of Tarmac about 1.5 metres wide lined with flowers. It was a precise move but that is what I am specialised in. It’s what I teach my students.

“The others got out, leaving a commando with me who ordered me to rise to 1.5 metres and do a half turn in the courtyard.

“I was then told to hold the helicopter just about the ground and wait. I don’t know why. It was extremely precise move to hold it at around 3cms for 10 minutes.

“My worry was that the level of fuel was going down. It was very low. And I didn’t know where they would take me.”

While Buy hovered in the prison’s main courtyard, the only one not protected by anti-aircraft netting, the gunmen cut through a prison door using an angle grinder and burst into the visiting room where Faïd was talking to his brother, Brahim.

“After … everyone was on board I took off. I didn’t know who was on board; he [Faïd] was pretty quiet. They told me to fly towards Roissy [Charles de Gaulle] airport but not the airport itself.

“Then they ordered me to land in an alley near a Total petrol station next to a fast road … Everyone got out. I heard them talking about petrol and bleach and I knew they were going to try to set the Alouette on fire.”

The helicopter was found partially burned near Gonesse, north-east of Paris. Buy was taken to hospital where he was treated for shock.

It is the second time in five years that Faïd has broken out of jail. The French authorities believe the gang may have flown drones over the prison in recent months to become familiar with its layout in preparation for the raid.